Department of Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2011 Jul 27;366(1574):2111-23. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2010.0344.
The pattern of individual variation in brain component structure in pigs, minks and laboratory mice is very similar to variation across species in the same components, at a reduced scale. This conserved pattern of allometric scaling resembles robotic architectures designed to be robust to changes in computing power and task demands, and may reflect the mechanism by which both growing and evolving brains defend basic sensory, motor and homeostatic functions at multiple scales. Conserved scaling rules also have implications for species-specific sensory and social communication systems, motor competencies and cognitive abilities. The role of relative changes in neuron number in the central nervous system in producing species-specific behaviour is thus highly constrained, while changes in the sensory and motor periphery, and in motivational and attentional systems increase in probability as the principal loci producing important changes in functional neuroanatomy between species. By their nature, these loci require renewed attention to development and life history in the initial organization and production of species-specific behavioural abilities.
猪、水貂和实验鼠大脑成分结构的个体变异模式与同一成分的物种间变异非常相似，只是规模有所缩小。这种保有的比例缩放模式类似于为应对计算能力和任务需求的变化而设计的机器人架构，可能反映了生长和进化中的大脑在多个尺度上保护基本感觉、运动和体内平衡功能的机制。保有的缩放规则对特定于物种的感觉和社会通信系统、运动能力和认知能力也具有重要意义。因此，中枢神经系统中神经元数量的相对变化在产生特定于物种的行为方面受到高度限制，而感觉和运动外围以及动机和注意力系统的变化则更有可能成为在物种间产生功能神经解剖学重要变化的主要位置。从本质上讲，这些位置需要在初始的组织和特定于物种的行为能力的产生中重新关注发育和生活史。
